Now, Sirs, if there is no possibility of coming near to God in this world, or in that which is to come, but through the perfect work of Jesus Christ, and he the only way of salvation, what a mercy it is if the good Lord has taught us to see, and to feel our need of him; if he has enlightened us to see our life of sin, led us to see our corrupt nature, and our cursed, condemned state as rebels against God in his law; if he has imparted to us life to make us feel what the light discovers; and if he has chastened us that we should not be condemned with the world, hunted us out of all our refuges of lies, made us sick of our own ways, and by his power operated upon our wills, so as to make us willing to leave the spirit and practices of this world, and all our own supposed worth and worthiness behind: and to come as poor, needy, guilty, helpless, unworthy sinners, to the feet of Christ, for all that salvation that is in him, and which we really need; and for this precious Redeemer to be made known in the court of conscience, so as to enjoy pardon and peace, what a mercy it is! and how does it call for our gratitude to the God of all grace! And what an awful thing it is to be left blinded by the God of this world, dead in sin, shut up in unbelief, given up to hardness of heart, and through pride to reject the Lord Jesus Christ, to disallow of him, and to make him a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, so as to be offended in him and at him, as all worldlings, pharisees, and hypocrites are; such as Arians, who deny his proper divinity, and call him a mere man; all that deny his efficacious blood, the operations of his Spirit, his righteousness imputed; and instead of trusting in him, the sure foundation, are all of them building upon the sand; and as sure as there is a God, dying in that state will be damned for ever. Who is it that has made us to differ from these? The distinguishing grace of God alone: and therefore, not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory, for thy loving mercy, and for thy truth's sake! Having thus shewn you the place where God and sinners meet, and proved it to be Christ Jesus, and that it is only through him that poor sinners can have communion with God, I proceed to my next general head, and that is, to shew you the ground of communion with God. And do you observe, first of all, the real foundation of communion is union. Hence I will lay down this proposition, that all the persons that God has willed to save, and has loved with an everlasting love, are united to Christ in the eternal decree of election, and are one with him; and all such shall have communion with God in time, and to all eternity, and none else. Now the will of God is the fountain of all the communion that God's people have with God; in fact, all the blessings they ever will enjoy come from the divine will; hence he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy;" and Paul says, that we are predestinated according to the good pleasure of his will; and he "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." The fact is, that God hath willed, purposed, determined, and decreed to bless a number of the fallen race with all spiritual blessings, before the world was in actual existence, and by his grace to make them meet for himself, and to bring them safe to heaven, that they may be found blessing him to all eternity, and the way is Christ. The blessed agent that makes these poor creatures meet, is the Holy Spirit. Now all that God willed to save, and decreed to bring to glory, he loves with an everlasting love; this is plain from Jer. xxxi. 3.; "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." And it is free love; he does not love or save them for what he saw in them, for he saw nothing in them but sin, as saith the fifty-third Psalm; neither did he love them for what they would do, for they must be saved before they can do any good at all; but he loved them freely, because it was his will; and it is unchangeable love, it always will be what it ever was, full and free, without the least shadow of a turn; for "God is love;" and God is unchangeable, and it is boundless, and also unspeakable. Hence, says John, God so loved the world," so, as not to be expressed: and he is quite lost in it, and therefore says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." And," herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Now, Sirs, as God has willed to save poor sinners, and thus loved them, so he has entered into covenant with his co-equal and co-eternal Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father has provided for all his elect in his Son; hence we are said to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. The Son of God has in covenant agreed to all his Father's proposals, and undertook to do all for them in obeying and suffering, as their Surety. And the Spirit, he, as a divine person, undertook to teach men their fallen state as sinners, the need of Christ to save them; to bring them to confession and prayer, and to testify of Christ to them, and to make them meet for heaven. Hence Christ is said to be God's elect, and in covenant engagements to be set up from everlasting; to be in time manifestly a Mediator; and all that God loved and decreed to save, he chose them in Christ. They are the Father's gift to him, and they are his charge, and they are said to be loved with the same love that Christ is, as it relates to his manhood; for the Saviour says, John xvii. 23, "And hast loved them as thou hast loved me." And as Christ is the covenant head and representative of his people, they being all the objects of God's love, chosen in Christ, given to Christ; they are one with Christ, and ever will be what they ever were, that is, secure in Christ, bound up in the bond of everlasting love; so that they are eternally united to Christ; and devil, sin, nor death shall never be able to disunite them. Hence we read of their security in Christ, and of their being preserved in Christ until called; and as God loves them in Christ, is determined to save them; and as they are one with Christ, eternally united to him, from this very source does all communion proceed. (To be continued.) AN EXHORTATION TO THE BELIEVERS IN JESUS. (Concluded from page 320) We will turn from this, to speak of the practice exhorted to in our text, as it concerns individual believers. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of the most high God, let us hold fast our profes sion." What is necessary for the whole body of believers, is as necessary for each and every individual believer. And this is, at times, more striking by the apprehension, than by the consideration of this. Let me, therefore, aim to illustrate the present subject to which the text exhorts, by an individual who knows and believes on our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the profession such should hold fast? What is it that such an individual, who believes on our Lord Jesus Christ, should confess, and continue in the profession of? Let this be considered as the subject which now most immediately demands and requires our attention. Surely, a real believer in Jesus should closely attend to what he knows of Jesus, from the revelation made of him in the written word, and what he hath received therefrom, through the light and teaching of the Holy Ghost; he should abide holding fast the profession of the same, in all be thinks and speaks of the most blessed Immanuel. That he is a person in the Godhead whose love is personally fixed on his beloved ones. That he loves with an unchanging love. That he is to every individual of his, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever" that his salvation is for ever. He hath removed the sins of his people from them, as far as the east is from the west. When an individual who belongs to Christ, enters spiritually into the knowledge of Christ, it leads to a fixation on him. This leads to our centering in him: and this makes Christ the first and the last, in the view and esteem, in the end and desire of such an one. To hold fast our profession, is to live in the full belief of Christ's finished work of salvation. That he is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth us from all sin. It is to believe that a believer in Jesus is complete in him; and most assuredly it is, to live in views of Christ, and in the real appre hension of what is revealed concerning Christ, in the gospel of his grace, in real views of the Father's record and testimony concerning him. This is to hold fast the profession of him. To live and confess the fulness of his grace, to be all-sufficient to supply all the wants and necessities that any of his can be in. To confess his faithfulness to his saints, and to his promises in fulfilling the same, and in making the same good: this is to hold fast the confession of faith concerning him. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." May the Lord give you, who profess Jesus to be the Son of God, to apprehend the truth as it is in Jesus; to see the importance of holding fast the profession of him, in his truths, doctrines, worship, and ordinances. May this be your case, even to the end of your lives, that you may receive the accomplishment of his own promise, which runs thus," Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' The Lord grant it for his great name's sake, to the praise of the glory of his Amen. grace. THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR. My Dear Friends, I TRUST this will find you all well, and in the enjoyment of that salvation unto which you were eternally appointed; and for the knowledge and comfort of which you were created, and are now regenerated. My prayer to God for you, beloved in the Lord, is, that his love may dwell in you—the blood of Christ be sprinkled upon you-and the influence of the Spirit constantly guide and comfort you that the peace of God may keep your hearts and minds steadfast in the truths of the everlasting Gospel. There is nothing to equal peace with God, and that peace, as revealed in the word, coming to us through the precious blood of the Prince of peace, (Isa. ix. 6.) who hath made peace through the blood of his cross, (Col. i. 20.) and opened a glorious way of access to God, so that the poor sinner, as such, might come with boldness to the throne of grace, and find grace to help in time of need. And when is it not a time of need? are we not always needing fresh communications of light, of life, of love, of grace, and power to enable us to press toward the mark for the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Sure I am, there is no standing but as he upholds, nor going forward but as he leads. What a wilderness are we in! how many trials and sorrows have we to endure; but how blessed to know, the Lord leads by a right way; and the apostle tells us, (1 Pet. iv. 12.) we should not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, for it is not strange that the gold and silver should be tried, while the wood, hay, and stubble, the world or non-elect, pass on easy and comfortable, till the awful day of judgment burns them up in vindictive wrath. Know, therefore, that there is not one trial to endure more than shall work together for our good; but O, how hard to believe this, in the depth of trouble. Unbelief, that enemy to God and our comfort, too often sinks the mind with suggestions of this kind, well it is no good to try, or to read, or to pray; all these things are against me. Thus "Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain, I can never sufficiently thank you for your kindness to me, but that Lord who hath looked on, is not unfaithful, nor will he forget your work and labour in this particular; (Heb. vi. 10.) for a cup of cold water, given in the name of Jesus, shall meet with its reward. At the same time, I hope you will receive this letter as a token of gratitude; and may the Spirit of truth instruct us in the precious things that make for our eternal peace.-Sometime ago I told you a little about the christian character, as a traveller and a stranger in a desert land; and now, as the Lord may condescend to instruct me, I intend to give you a description of the believer, as a soldier, that you may be encouraged to go forth to meet the armed men, and fight the good fight of faith; knowing the Lord hath said, the weak shall say I am strong. (Joel iii. 10.) Although perfect weakness in ourselves, yet in the Lord's strength we are made strong, and are enabled to put to flight the armies of the aliens, (Heb. xi. 32, 33, 34.) Therefore we see the propriety of the apostle's exhortation to Timothy, (2 Epistle ii. 3, 4.) "Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."-These two verses are very interesting, describing, as they do, the present state of the church, and the military circumstances of every child of God; and indeed, we may admire the truth as well as live in the practice of it, for the apostle saith, "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus;" not strong in self, nor in our own stock of grace, but in the fulness of grace in our strong rock, which is the privilege of all the called of God. And the exhortation to endure, necessarily implies, an enduring through the power and influence of grace; and thus proving the reality of our religion, for those professors who spring up among thorns, and where there is no depth of earth, in time of trouble, fall away; but those who endure to the end shall be saved; therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. In this scripture, two or three things I will, as the Lord please, briefly write about, and may you, my dear friends, be profited and encouraged, |